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Coyotes vs. Edmonton Oilers
Rexall Place- Edmonton, Alberta
Puck Drops at 7:00PM Arizona Time
TV: FSN AZ – RADIO: XTRA 910

Last five games:
Oilers: 1 – 4 – 0
Coyotes: 2 – 1 – 2
Last ten games:
Oilers: 1 – 9 – 0
Coyotes: 6 – 2 – 2

Point Leaders
Oilers Penner(39), Visnovsky(26), Brule(23)
Coyotes Doan(26), Lombardi(25), Upshall(24)
Goal Leaders
Oilers Penner(19), Brule(10), Horcoff(9)
Coyotes Upshall(14), Vrbata(12), Doan(10)
Assists Leaders
Oilers Penner(20), Visnovsky(18), Hemsky(15)
Coyotes Lombardi(18),Doan(16), Jovanovski(14)

The Coyotes begin the first game of a quick two game road trip to Western Canada when they meet the Edmonton Oilers for the second of four meetings this season.

The Oilers are at the bottom of the western conference standings for numerous reasons. The first being the massive amount of injuries (to key players) they’ve had so far this season. They are well over 240 man games lost to injury as of now. Secondly, the Oilers players seem to have a hard time adapting to Edmonton Oilers Head Coach Pat Quinn’s system (or the players just can’t play correctly no one knows) as the Oilers are horrid in their defensive zone. Blown assignments, shoddy coverage, and so on is the current characteristics of the Oilers in their defensive end.

The Oilers were initially scheduled to take a mini vacation to Palm Springs this coming weekend but was canceled so that the Oilers can partake in a mini-camp and work on a simpler system.

However, before that happens the Oilers take on a injury depleted Coyotes roster who took another hit when leading scorer Scottie Upshall left the lineup with an undisclosed injury. According to the Coyotes website, it was doubtful that Upshall would make the road trip.

This means that forwards are going to have to step up again in the absence of key personnel going down. Should be a good matchup.

Things to watch for:

The Oilers in their defensive zone – In the Oilers games I’ve watched this season, the team looked lost when it came to coverage in multiple situations. The more skilled teams were able to beat the Oilers pretty easily due to this inability to play defensive hockey.

Upshall’s absence – It’s going to be interesting to see who is going to be chosen to fill Upshall’s presence and scoring on the ice. My money says it’s either Pyatt or Prucha.

Keys to the game:

Don’t look past the Oilers – Sure the Oilers are on a huge slide and were able to beat the Leafs pretty easily. However, Coyotes fans need to remember that the last time the two teams met the Oilers shut them out 4-0. The Oilers have the tools to do some damage and it can come out at any time.

Step up – It’s time for players to step up in the absence of yet another key player that went down to injury. This time it’s an offensive player in Scottie Upshall.

Discipline – The Oilers have the Coyotes number when it comes to matchups against the two teams. It’s time to take back the advantage from the Oilers and play hard nosed Coyotes hockey.

Injuries

Oilers: Mike Comrie, Ales Hemsky, Nikolai Khabibulin, Marc Pouliot
Coyotes: Kurt Sauer, Scottie Upshall, Daniel Winnik

Officials:

Referees Stephen Walkom (24), Ian Walsh (29)
Linesmen Brian Murphy (93), Lyle Seitz (61)